Something both simple and bizarre happened on my way to work this morning. As I got off at the Canal Street stop, a surge of people got off with (or amongst (or around)) me. This was not bizarre. And, though that is simple, it's not the simple moment I am writing about. It was when the surge of us moved to the turnstiles that I was simply amazed.

Someone had pushed open the emergency gate, setting of its alarm. And that is a simple act, but not necessarily a bizarre one. People often will open the emergency gate amidst a surge of others. It's an offensive tactic that gets you to work or to shopping or to being in a hurry faster than those waiting for the turnstile. The bizarre element kicked in when I realized that, even though they were in perfect working order, not a single person was using any of the three turnstiles.

Instead, everyone bottlenecked together until it was their turn for the crowd to push/nudge them through the blaring emergency gate. I don't know why. Maybe everyone was curious to know why everyone else was waiting to get pushed/nudged through the clogged and screaching emergency gate and not the clear lanes of the three functioning turnstiles. After all, that's why I waited my turn to get pushed/nudged through the emergency gate.

And, you know what? Beyond getting to the other side of the gate, nothing happened. And I have to assume nothing happened to any of the other bottlenecked members of the crowd either. We all just bottlenecked back together again and pushed/nudged our way up the stairs to empty onto the sidewalk.